Moving without plastic: Kicking the plastic habit…

It’s been a long time we’ve been using stretch wrap and plastic bags, so moving without plastic sounds daunting. It’s great stuff and does a great job. It’s just apparently real bad for the world. So we’ve been putting in the work of developing new practices and securing some new equipment. I’ve been pondering the idea for years but getting the electric truck has given us the opportunity to have a petroleum free move (aside from the plastic dash, sneakers, tires, etc). So now’s the time to try and go the distance. Maybe if we can do it, everyone else can to.

What we’ve found is that with a mix of old-school moves (rubber bands and cotton straps) and some special imported European covers we’re most of the way there. Here’s a list of what we’ve come up with

Sofas: using dedicated sofa covers (some imported from europe, some available locally) instead of stretching sofas
Cushions, pillows, odd soft goods: we’ve found some big over-sized nylon laundry bags, we use these instead of the plastic bags we used to use
TVs: We now have dedicated TV covers/bags. They offer much better protection that warpping, or even boxing and are quicker than either. Expensive but worth it.
Rubber bands: equipment that’s been around for ever. They used to be cut up truck inner tubes back in the day, but are nicer now. Not as good as stretch in some circumstances, but they’re not disposable plastic…
Chairs: we have some dedicated chair covers made from moving blankets with elastics built in, quite clever and very quick on most chairs
Mattresses: we’ve got half-covers for easy ones without bad weather and also full coverage waterproof covers we imported from England for everything else. Much better protection than the plastic covers we used to use and actually make the moving easier. Not cheap, but a real improvement.
Small parts: we’ve got a mix of small cloth zippered pouches (like a pencil case) and tiny cotton bags, all reusable.